The despicable Dr Caligari comes to town

The man in a long coat and dressed in black, Dr

Caligari

, throws a question at the audience, ‘Do you have any question for Cezare? Anyone can ask, anybody?’

Cezare has been in a coffin for long and his ‘mentor’ has brought him out, claiming he is a clairvoyant. A man emerges from the audience and tells him he has a question but his friend, Francis, tries to dissuade him from asking. He wants to know how long he has to live and soon, the issue is settled by the doctor with a murder.

Welcome to the world of Dr Caligari whose best dialogue perhaps is, “Death is your true friend, it never ditches you”.

It is a theatrical adaptation of the German silent movie,

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari

, directed by Rober Wiene in the 1920s, with the same title. Arguably the first horror movie in the world, it famously predicted Hitler’s advent in German politics and is considered compulsory study material for students of theatre, cinema and art even now.

Directed by Deepan Sivaraman under the banner of the Bharat Rang Mahotsav & META, the play is about to make its debut in Kochi after having a successful run in around 40 stages in India and abroad.

Director Deepan, known for his highly regarded adaptation of Khasakinte Ithihasam, talks animatedly about the play, which in his opinion, shows the darker side of humankind and kindles so many questions in the audience’s mind. The central character of Dr Caligari is played by renowned theatre and film personality Prakash Bare, who made the critically-acclaimed movie Sufi Paranja Katha. The horrifying experiences of Francis, are brought to life by Purav Goswami, a Delhi-based theatre artiste.
One of the highlights of the play is that it combines conventional scenes with screening, in a technique called scenography, providing another dimension to the audience.

Dr Caligari has with him a young man called Cesare in a somnambulist state, who he claims has been sleeping in a coffin for long without seeing the light of day. Francis meets Dr Caligari and Cesare along with a friend Alan (Deepan Sivaraman). The doctor claims that Cesare can predict the future but Alan is killed after he poses a question to him while Francis’s fiancé disappears under mysterious circumstances. The play highlights the enslavement of ordinary folk by authority by instilling helplessness and fear in them. Deepan’s effort to present theatre as an art form that does not rely merely on the written word or dialogue format continues in this play as well.

This play is staged in a warehouse setup while the the audience is ensconced in a gallery seating.

Apart from actors and dialogues, music, videos, set design and lighting also play a huge part in enhancing the interactive experience for the audience. The cast includes Leenaz Samad Bicha as Jane, Amit Sengupta as Dr Stern, Vijay Singh as Clerk and Twaha Majeed as Cesare. The play will be staged at Maharaja’s College auditorium twice every evening for three days, starting on Friday the 8th.